About me

This blogname was derived from the novel The Secret Life Of Saeed The Pessoptimist by the Palestinian Israeli Emile Habiby: absurdism as weapon against the (ir)realities of daily life in Palestine/Israel. (The subtitle is from a book by Dutch author Renate Rubinstein. It could as well be my motto).
My real name is Martin (Maarten Jan) Hijmans. I've been covering the ME since 1977 and have been a correspondent in Cairo. I started my 'Abu Pessoptimist' blog in January 2009 out of anger during the onslaught in Gaza. The other one, The Pessoptmist, is meant to be a sister version in English. (En voor de Nederlandstaligen: ik wilde in november 2009 een tweede blog in het Engels beginnen en ontdekte te laat dat als je één account hebt, een profiel dan meteen ook voor allebei de blogs geldt. Vandaar dat het nu ineens in het Engels is... So sorry.)

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Egyptian civilians hang two thieves

(AP) — Egyptian security officials say vigilantes beat two alleged
thieves, stripped them half-naked and then hung them in public in a
small Nile Delta town. Both the men died. The officials say the two men had stolen a rickshaw from a town in the province of Gharbiya. Angry residents in the town of Samanod beat the two suspects and hung them from a tree in a bus station on Sunday.
officials say residents who tried to help free the two men were pushed
back by others in a crowd.
Thousands of Egyptian policemen are on strike, prompting the attorney general
last week to release a statement encouraging citizen arrests. Similar attacks have happened elsewhere in Egypt, where security has deteriorated since the uprising two years ago.